Two Irish Olympic crews claim medals at rowing World Cup in Italy
Murtagh Keogh, At Picture: In Lago Rowing World Fiona Varese In Cup Aifric Di The Ireland Action
Two of Ireland’s Olympic-bound crews have kicked off the World Cup rowing season with podium positions at the Lago di Varese regatta in Italy.
Fiona Murtagh and Aifric Keogh came in second in the women’s pair, a strong second-half to the race, reducing the gap between them and the reigning world champions, Veronique Meester and Ymkje Clevering of the Netherlands, by one second.
“It's our second event since Worlds, our second event in the pair together, so we're constantly learning and this is a good start to the Olympic year” said Murtagh.
Keogh added: “We've had a really good winter together. I think this is the longest we've ever been in one boat, usually it's a lot of chopping and changing so that's been nice, it gives us the space to try things out.”
The men’s double of Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch claimed bronze at the World Cup I event in Italy after just about squeezing past the German crew approaching the line.
“We had one of our fastest starts ever,” said Doyle. “And then we looked around and we weren't in the medal contention. The plan was we had a sprint up our sleeves to go early at the 700 meters, but then Daire called it early at 750 meters."
“A part of me was looking at the stroke coach thinking, ‘how is this going to last?’ But it did and it increased and the speed was good.
“I knew from the speed on the stroke coach that we were coming into the medals no matter what happened because no-one could match what we were doing.”
Emily Hegarty (Skibbereen RC), Natalie Long (Lee Valley RC), Eimear Lambe (Old Collegians BC) and Imogen Magner (Carlow RC) crossed the line in fourth position in the women's four, coming through the pack in the middle of the race in a quick second-half to the race.
Both Great Britain and the Netherlands have already booked their spots for this year’s Olympic Games in Paris so the Irish crew will be keeping all eyes on the final Olympic qualification regatta in May.
Sanita Puspure finished fifth in the A Final of the women's single scull. Konan Pazzaia won the B final of the men's single in one of the tightest races of the day, Nathan Timoney and Ross Corrigan finished with a win in the B Final of the men's pair.
The men's four of John Kearney, Andrew Sheehan, Jack Dorney and Ronan Byrne finished third in their B final. Next up for the high-performance team is the European Championships in Szeged, Hungary from April 25th to 28th.
Results:
Women's pair: Silver
Men's double: Bronze
Women's four: 4th
Women's single: 5th
Men's pair: 1st B Final
Men's single: 1st B Final
Men's four: 3rd B Final